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  RE: https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/@EUCommission/117381410942959608 I boosted this when it appeared but there are a distressing number of people who have just posted their views as replies. In case it's not clear, the way to influence the @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu on #AI and #Copyright is to respond to the consultation, not post aggressive comments in reply to the notice.

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  The proposed @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu ban on social media is published and as expected has zero concept of federated, self-hosted software but expressly places the smallest deployer in scope. A quick scan implies they want to kill off #SelfHosting with unreasonable burdens and disproportionate penalties. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/proposal-eu-kids-act-eu-keeping-internet-digital-spaces-accountable-and-trustworthy At least it has an direct exception for #O...

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  I felt old when I found the computer on which I learned assembler in the Computer History Museum. But I think being featured in archival footage about #OpenSource and #OpenJDK in the new #Java documentary might just beat that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGSg4b_cZA

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  Finally a real prosecution of a British water company. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/22/former-southern-water-employees-trial-alleged-cover-up-wastewater-testing

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  Having seen these thugs on the local streets (they also meet nearby to taunt refugees) I can't find any capacity for surprise at this finding. It would be fascinating to get demographic data on R-party supporters...... https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/24/most-people-arrested-during-henry-nowak-protests-had-been-reported-for-domestic-abuse #UKPol #Southampton

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  The @EUCommission has just published guidance documents clarifying how the Cyber Resilience Act #CRA affects (among other things) #OpenSource. This is the result of the extensive engagement of many open source community members. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/commission-publishes-new-guidance-support-timely-cyber-resilience-act-implementation

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  Has the #Amazon Blink team explicitly broken the ability of #OpenSource Home Assistant to log in to Blink? https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues/176836#issuecomment-5080466993

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  RE: https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/116924873937619510 The EU has refused to allow "OpenAI" to openwash their company. Bravo. #OpenSource means freedom first, and the EU courts agree. And thanks for the nod to @osi@social.opensource.org Jan, it's gratefully received!

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  The @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu wants to hear "from cybersecurity professionals and SME stakeholders on how #standards can best support real‑world #compliance needs under the Cyber Resilience Act." Let's make sure they hear from plenty of people who understand #OpenSource and the #CRA. https://cyberstand.eu/cyberstandeu-public-consultation

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  Facebook, Google, Microsoft and the rest of the surveillance economy have been trying to get everyone to provide all their private ID info for much of the past decade. Now the UK's Labour party are going to force us all to give it to them for free. And they are hiding the lede behind a story about a Quixotic child protection measure, hoping we won't realise. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-media-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-landmark-government-move-to-givekids-their-childho...

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  The major #OpenSource #CMS communities #Joomla #Wordpress #Typo3 and #Drupal have got together to tell the @EU_Commission how much the #CRA worries them despite their support for its goals. "in their current form, the proposed regulations run the risk of reducing software security, as well as undermining the EU’s core aims and values" https://www.joomla.org/announcements/general-news/5891-open-letter-foss-cms-cyber-resilience-act.html

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  Horrified to hear that NHS England is ignorantly closing their #OpenSource repositories "for security reasons". https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/ #UKPol

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  Want a job shaping the future of #OpenSource in EU tech? European tech standards body ETSI has a new paid position available for an open source expert. The advert doesn't say it quite like that because they have members who dislike open source, but "SDG" is the term for what was originally "Open Source Group" and this person will be managing collaborative open source projects on open source tools in a unique, challenging but hugely influential setti...

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  The unconference and lightning talk boards are filling up at #OggCamp today

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  The top appeals court of the European Union has once again found that standards referenced from safety law must be made "freely accessible under a system of access which is general, effective, without charge and non-discriminatory." I assume CEN/CENELEC and the national standards bodies it works with are urgently seeking a new business model. https://curia.europa.eu/site/upload/docs/application/pdf/2026-04/cp260060en.pdf https://infocuria.curia.europa.eu/tabs/jurisprudence?s...

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  OSI has a new API! There has actually been an OSI license API for many years thanks to the efforts of some of the directors a decade ago. Since it was manually maintained, it kept getting out of date. I am delighted that OSI now has a new API integrated into its WordPress instance that uses the same metadata as the license pages themselves so is always correct. https://opensource.org/blog/introducing-the-new-api-for-osi-approved-licenses #OpenSource

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  The only people who think they can define #OpenSource to suit their own needs are people who want to deny some or all others #SoftwareFreedom

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  The FSF comes out against OnlyOffice abuse of the AGPL https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/agpl-is-not-a-tool-for-taking-freedom-away #OpenSource #Licensing

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  With the #CRA finalised, the European Commission needs to accommodate the Fourth Sector (see https://blog.opensource.org/modern-eu-policies-need-the-voices-of-the-fourth-sector/) in future deliberations and hear the voices of the Commons. To get this started, a group of us who have engaged during 2023 got together to organise a unique set of workshops at FOSDEM 2024 on Sunday February 4 - see https://md.softwarefreedom.net/FOSDEM24). If you want your voice heard, come along to one of the worksho...

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  Strong new report from @openrightsgroup > The UK is currently facing a crisis of digital dependency. The country is overly reliant on a small number of tech giants for its critical digital infrastructure, which poses significant economic, security, legal, and policy risks, including to democracy and public debate. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/publications/tech-giants-and-giant-slayers-the-case-for-digital-sovereignty-and-the-digital-commons/ #ukpol #sovereignty #CyberSecurity #Open...

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  Near Oslo? I will be joining @isocnorway for a discussion about the Cyber Resilience Act #CRA (and other #policy and #legislation) and its potential impact on #OpenSource on Saturday 22nd April. https://isoc.no/event/will-the-coming-eu-regulations-kill-open-source/

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  Very sad this is not an April Fools post. https://www.collaboraonline.com/blog/tdf-ejects-its-core-developers/

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  Here's a petition I broadly support, with caveats. It calls for a referendum on bringing the UK water industry into public ownership. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/762640 Caveats: * Not a fan of plebiscites. Parliament should Just Do It. But needs must. * "Public ownership" needs nuance. Natural monopolies should be run by non-profits (TfL is an examplar; CICs are great) under public oversight. Infrastructure should be leased to them by the state, not owned...

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  This is a really good explanation of how modern #OpenSource #software #development is in fact #distributed, not centralised (despite the best efforts of some to create control points). https://www.collaboraonline.com/blog/distributed-by-design-how-modern-open-source-works/

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  Belkin has decided to brick a bunch of smart devices their customers thought they owned.

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  Are you going to @oggcamp this year? April 25-26 in Manchester (the original one in the UK). https://www.oggcamp.org/ #Events #OpenSource #FreeCulture

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  Thanks to the huge effort we all have put in to help the @EUCommission understand the value of open source and the role it plays in cyber security they are taking care to include it in all their thinking around the #CRA. For example, this page explains why they created a new legal category of #stewards in the CRA: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/cra-open-source

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  The #CRA is now published in the Official Journal so comes into force as European law in 20 days. Next task: the #standards. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202402847 #Policy #OpenSource

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  A significant change of objective has quietly happened to the #standards system in #Europe, with the transformation of standards from a tool to promote #interoperability to a mechanism to comply with the law. Yet the toleration of #patents in standards remains, meaning complying with the law may require a relationship with the corporations controlling the market. Surely this is anti-competitive and reverses the very purpose of standards? https://opensource.org/blog/standards-and-the-presumpti...

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  @rdicosmo & @zacchiro just received an #EOSAwards26 for @swheritage - congratulations to them, very proud to be part of their team!